Liu Mu’s Tu-shu Learning Under Symbolic Interpretation

Liu Mu was a famous Yi scholar in the early Song Dynasty,and the first proponent of the Tu-shu(the Yellow River Chart and the Luo River Diagram)learning,whose study became popular during the Qingli period and had a profound influence on later generations.Combining the perspectives of modern semiotics and Yi Studies hermeneutics,we find that in a sense,Changes-oriented diagrams can be seen as the development of the symbolic function of trigrams,and that Tu-shu learning has created a new form of Image-numberology,broadened the boundaries of Yi symbols,and promoted the development of Yi Studies hermeneutics.In order to re-cognize the multiple theoretical essences and academic-historical significance in Tu-shu learning from today’s perspective,this paper decides to go back to the initial form of it i.e.,to take Liu Mu as the starting point of the inquiry of this issue.Therefore,this paper first recapitulates Liu Mu’s ideas and ideological perspectives on the formation of He Luo scholarship,and then explores its symbolic hermeneutic and natural philosophical connotations centering on schematic symbols,so as to evaluate the academic-historical significance of Liu Mu’s scholarship in a more comprehensive and objective manner.On this basis,we will initially explore the significance of the emergence of Tu-shu learning in Song Dynasty for Yi Studies Hermeneutics and Yi Studies Symbolism,and try a new way of thinking for understanding it in the future through the practice of this paper.The introductory section first clarifies the position of this paper on the issue of Liu Mu’s Yi Studies text,and then briefly compares the history of the development of Image-Number Studies to the Tu-shu learning,and provides a theoretical explanation of the suitability of studying the Tu-shu learning from the perspective of Peirce’s symbolic hermeneutics.Subsequently,the paper systematically compares the systematic studies of scholars from ancient and modern times for Liu Muology,as well as the methodological innovations of scholars in the Tu-shu learning today,and it is on the basis of the predecessors that the innovative research ideas and methods of this paper are presented.The first chapter briefly analyzes the ideological origins of Liu Mu’s theory of heluo,and the practical motivation for Liu Mu’s creation of the diagrams of hetu and luoshu.The second chapter explores the origin of Yi in the context of the study of He-Luo,starting from Liu Mu’s view of "He Tu Luo Shu" and focusing on how the sages created the eight trigrams based on them.After analyzing the symbolic meanings of He Tu and Luo Shu,the three chapters divide the other Yi diagrams into three symbolic deduction systems,namely,"cosmogenesis diagram","cosmic structure diagram",and "cosmic change diagram".Finally,using the Book of Changes as a reference,we explains the meaning of Liu Mu’s philosophy of change in Yi Studies.In the fourth chapter,after a brief description of the state of thought of Liu Mu’s later scholars and the decline of Liu Mu’s school of He Luo,the chapter expounds the developmental significance of Liu Mu’s scholarship in three aspects,namely,Image-Number Studies,hermeneutics,and semiotics,and concludes with an analysis of the whole text to reconceptualize the gains and losses of Liu Mu’s scholarship as objectively as possible.Finally,in the concluding section,the paper further considers the Tu-shu learning as a symbolic hermeneutic turn of Image-Number Studies and tries to explore the space and limits of the role of symbolic hermeneutics in the future study of Yi.